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Qatar Airways has a massive amount of open business class availability to destinations across the Middle East, Asia and Africa (including the Maldives) from a plethora of US airports over the next year. When lots of availability drops on these routes, it tends to sell out fast, especially to high-demand redemption destinations like the Maldives. Gary at View from the Wing first reported this award space.
Non-stops to Doha are open from pretty much every US airport that Qatar serves, and the options widen even more if you don’t mind a 2-stop trip with a positioning flight to one of the gateway cities.
There is quite a bit of 2+ passenger availability. I booked Seattle-Delhi for 2 and was able to find decent options to the Seychelles, Jordan, South Africa and elsewhere in India. It seems that much of Qatar’s route map beyond Doha is fair game.
Many of these flights have Qatar’s QSuites, considered by many folks to be one of the best business class products in the world. In order to tell whether or not the flight that you’re looking at is indeed QSuites, see this post from Greg.
The Deal
- Fly Qatar Airways business class (including QSuites) from multiple US Airports to the Middle East, India and Southern Asia (including the Maldives) through November, 2024.
- Availability from Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle, (SEA), Dallas (DFW), Houston (IAH), Miami (MIA), Atlanta (ATL), Washington DC (IAD), Boston (BOS), New York City (JFK) and Chicago (ORD).
Ways to Book
The best way to find availability is usually easiest using the calendar feature on American Airlines or Qatar’s website.
Once you find availability, you can book it one of several ways:
- AAdvantage – Business class is 70,000 miles each way (use aa.com) to the Middle East, India and Southern Asia; 75,000 to Africa.
- Avios (Qatar/BA) – Business class is 70,000 Avios from the East Coast to Doha, 85,000+ if going beyond to India, Africa or the Maldives depending on cost of additional segments (use britishairways.com or qatarairways.com). American Express, Chase and Capital One are all British Airways transfer partners, while Citi transfers to Qatar Airways. Avios can be transferred from BA to Qatar, but it can be a bit of a process to set up initially (see how here).
- Alaska Air – Business starts at 85,000 miles each way (use alaskaair.com)
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles – Business starts at 89,000 miles each way (use Asia Miles’ website)
- JetBlue – Business starts at 70,000 miles each way (use JetBlue.com)
Quick Thoughts
Qatar Qsuites are hands-down one of the best business class products in the world. They have a self-contained suite with doors that feels more like a first class cabin and some middle seats can be combined to create a double bed for couples travelling together.
While it can be easier to find availability from the US to Doha, usually we don’t see this many dates dropping all at the same time. In addition, it’s more uncommon to find Qatar business class available all the way through to connection destinations. To the Maldives, for instance, it’s almost always the DOH-MLE leg that is the first to lose business availability (same with Capetown or Johannesburg). Currently, both US-DOH AND numerous connections are plentiful.
This availability most likely won’t last long, so book if you find dates that work for you.
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Do you really think it’s safe to transit Qatar these days? They openly support Hamas, and we all saw what they did to those Australian women not too long ago…
I transited Doha on my way to Dammam last Thursday and no issues whatoesver. Same with KSA.
The same thing could be said of everyone who flew Qatar the day before all those women were sexually violated on their way to Australia…. Not sure what at all KSA has to do with it.
Thank you! Booking for one, figure out the details later, SEA to JNB and return CPT to Sea for 150K + $129. Through AA, confirmed now by QR. Excellent! Here’s hoping they leave the long legs in QSuites.
BOS – MLE x2 Business. 340K avios + $1K.
For some reason, Qatar website does not work when searching for award flights. It does not recognize airport code, does not open the calendar etc. Anyone else having similar issues?
It’s been glitchy for me too. Sometimes refreshing helps, but I’ve found the app to work better.
Gary’s link is from 2022, so looks like this reporting is all you guys, lol.
Ha, I fixed that.
I recently booked QSuites (SEA – DOHA – NAG) via AA (shared it on FM insiders on FB). But the new availability for October / November works so much better.
Although I couldn’t find the flight I wanted on JetBlue / Cathay, I found it via AA and BA. Booked it via BA since Amex transfers 1:1 and I rather save AA for another redemption. Super happy about it. Thank you FM team for the tip. You peeps are the best.
How much you paid with BA?
85000 + $207 per person. So Total 170k + $414. Transfer from Amex was instant.
Other option I had was AA 140k + $82, but happy to save that and use Amex MR.
Here’s my experience today all day–lots of this errors out on AA. Trying to get to SEZ and holding economy tix booked earlier for 40K each way since nothing was available in front. I tried five different reservations at different times today going through multiple different departure gateways (JFK, ORD and DFW), and got all the way to “Review and Pay” and then the website gets stuck. I tried putting a hold on each of the tickets (which worked) but watched in amazement as the Qatar flights on hold disappeared with 3-5 minutes WHILE ON HOLD. I called the Platinum Desk and the incredibly patient agent spent 1 hour and 37 minutes with me getting both of our return flights moved up front for 75K miles per ticket. I could have moved the outgoing up front but it would have meant shortening our time in SEZ by two days, and P2 said it wasn’t worth it to lose two days on the beach for Q-Suites (we’ve flown Q-Suites before). So, if it shows up on AA.com, it MAY be bookable, but it is kind of iffy. Your mileage may definitely vary!
Should add one flight was put on hold by the AA agent while on the phone, and then Qatar told AA they refused to book it because it was no or no longer available.. Frustrating day.
I had a similar problem this week with AA phantom award space in F on JAL. I gave up and booked J on AA instead. Not quite the same. It’s gets old seeing that “Something went wrong page” and going back to the calendar to find the flight has disappeared, over and over.
Any luck finding availability on JetBlue, especially now with the Chase transfer bonus? I searched multiple routes, to/from Doha, and no luck (tried both the specific date and monthly calendar searches on JetBlue mobile site).
@Tim @Nick Reyes Have you or the team noticed issues with segments not be bookable together thru BA? I could find BOS-DOH and DOH-CEB, but I couldn’t get the BA website to do BOS-DOH-CEB. BA doesn’t have aggressive routing rules right? I could try to call them.
I have exactly the same problem. Found nonstop for 2 from LAX to DOH, and also the segments DOH to MLE but can’t book LAX all the way to MLE, this is using AA. Would calling AA help?
You could try. Make sure you double check the dates and times. Mine arrives two days later, it threw me off at first checking segments.
Yes I am aware, also many flights and availability for DOH-MLE segment for several days in a roll
I think BA can only be price per segment. Therefore making it an expensive option if flying beyond DOH.
I believe this article needs to add that detail. BA can only be used to price per segment, therefore any connection beyond DOH is more expensive.
It actually says that in the “ways to book” section
I called BA, booked by phone, and phone booking fee was waived. SUCCESS.
Well done!
how much was the final price and routing?
100k avios plus $204 usd. Jetblue wanted to charge 140k, nope.
Just popping into the comments to say that I booked 4 seats JNB-DOH-Europe for 55K (which is the same as the price just from JNB-DOH). Quite a few DOH-Europe routes had availability for four passengers (and just the flight between Doha and Europe would cost fewer miles depending on which program you use (possibly useful for those planning bigger trips and/or needing seats for more people).
Great find. Does not seem possible to route thru Qatar for Asia.
Thru AA no.
I’ve been trying IAH-DOH-DEL or MAA for last several weeks without success. AA does not seem to show QR available.